Man hospitalised after boat nearly capsizes

At 07h00, Saturday, 25th October, the 9 meter charter fishing catamaran boat, SHONGOLOLO, with 7 people on board, suffered a near capsizing by a wave while launching to go to sea at Shelly Beach and the craft washed ashore at Shelly Beach.It appears that when the boat hit a wave, while exiting to go to sea, the console broke causing possible loss of steering and leaving the boat at the mercy of the waves and the boat was washed onto the beach with all 7 people remaining in the boat.Our sea rescue Shelly Beach crew were opening up our rescue base at the time for routine base maintenance and the crew responded to the beach to assist.On arrival on-scene the skipper of Shongololo was found to have lacerated his forehead and a male passenger, aged in his early 20’s, from Durban, had suffered a fracture of the left forearm and both were treated by our NSRI medics.MediVac ambulance services were activated and the man with the fractured forearm has been transported to hospital in a stable condition by MediVac ambulance. The skipper did not need hospital treatment for the laceration to his forehead.The boat has been recovered and no further assistance was required. File image